The Innkeeper and the Diner Owner
by CopperBoom4
Summary: A look into the very beginning of Lorelai and Luke's friendship and how their lives slowly start to revolve around that friendship. Companion piece to Life, Love and Memories. A/U from that same universe.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I know this is probably incredibly soon to be posting another story so close to posting my last one, but the ideas possible from this Rory-less universe won't leave me alone. I should probably start by saying that I do like the character of Rory but have always found Lorelai and Luke far more fascinating. I didn't like Finale of Season 4 and beyond Rory either so I think that's why I like writing for this universe. I want to thank Nancy and Eledgy for their reviews on the first story. This story is going to go a little deeper into Lorelai meeting Luke and handle some of the flashbacks of her pregnancy and arrival in Stars Hollow. Clearly I don't own anything because I'm scrambling things around like a madwoman. Also there is some discrepancy in the show's timeline of when Luke opened the diner and when they met and stuff, so I'm going to be taking liberties with that. Enjoy!**

I have exactly fifteen minutes before I have to be back at the Inn for my meeting with Mia, but I HAVE to get myself some coffee. Alice wasn't able to come in today because her son is home with the Chicken Pox and I had to fill in for her. I guess when you're the head maid at a well-known Inn you make sacrifices, especially when someone needs to care for their child. I try to push the churning feeling in my stomach down and keep my mind from flitting to the thought that I could have been in that same situation had things gone as planned (or un-planned depending on how you look at it). I hurry to Weston's only to see the closed sign hanging in the window. I forgot that Fran was going out of town to see one of her nieces get married and the store would be closed all week. I grumble as I turn the corner and head for Doose's Market. If I can't have coffee, chocolate will jumpstart my system until I can get some. I'm just about to go into the market when I look at the building next door and see a sign shaped like a yellow coffee cup with the word "Luke's" scrawled across it in red paint. I have a flashback of sitting in the beauty parlor chair getting my hair cut and hearing the town gossips Miss Patty and Babette talking about one of the boys in town opening a diner in his father's old hardware store, and how it was a shame that William had to leave us so soon. I walk briskly to the front door of the hardware store/diner and see that it's packed with people. It appears that only one man, clad in a flannel shirt, backwards baseball cap, and an apron, is working. I go quickly inside and sit down on the only vacant stool, right by the cash register.

The man is bustling around taking orders and yelling them into the back where the kitchen must be. He passes me three times and never even looks in my direction. When he goes by the fourth time I call out to him. "Mr. Diner Man, I need coffee." The man stops and looks at me. He's probably close to my age and try not to focus how blue his eyes are and how easily you could get lost in them. "Oh do you? Well I need to come up with a better plan to handle the breakfast rush, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen either, so wait your turn." Well excuse me for thinking I could order something in a restaurant. Flannel man walked away and served some of the other tables. I waited a few minutes but I was cutting it close to meeting time and I still needed my coffee. I decided to get up and follow diner guy around and see if I could pester him into getting my coffee faster. "Hey Diner man, I really need that coffee now. I'm going crazy without it and I'm going to be late." I followed him around to two more tables before he finally whirled around and sneered at me. "Look you can't just follow me around because you're in some caffeine frenzy. Now go back, sit down, shut up, and wait your turn." I pouted and went back to my seat. Diner man came behind the counter again and I wasn't going to let him get away without getting my coffee. "Hey diner man, when's your birthday?" He stopped and looked at me like I had just escaped from a mental institution. "What does that have to do with anything?" I rolled my eyes at him. "Just tell me your birthday." He balled his fists up and crossed his arms. Through gritted teeth he told me "November 14th. Someone had left a paper sitting on the counter next to me. I grabbed it and found the horoscope section and ripped the Scorpio horoscope from the paper. I took a pen out of my bag and scribbled something underneath what was written and handed it to diner man. "You will meet an annoying woman today, give her coffee and she will go away." He looked up at me with a face that wasn't amused and I gave him my best sweet smile. Diner man went and filled a large to-go cup for me and pushed it over the counter. I pulled out money to pay and he told me, "It's on the house, first time customer." I tossed him another sweet smile before heading for the door. "Hey," I called back to him. "You might want to hold onto that horoscope, keep it in your wallet or something. One day it might bring you good luck."

I left the diner and rushed back to the Inn. I was only two minutes late for my meeting, maybe Mia wouldn't notice. I ran to her office and slid into the doorway as quickly as possible. She was sitting behind her desk reading some paper and without looking up at me she said, "Lorelai, you're late." I looked down at my shoes and apologized. "I'm sorry Mia, I just ran out for coffee and the man who was supposed to give it to me was grumpy and made me wait, I really tried to be on time." Mia gave me a soft smile. "Oh did you go by Lucas' place? It's quite busy there this time of day, he really should hire some help. Sit down Lorelai, there's something I want to talk to you about." I tried to swallow the lump in my throat. This couldn't be good. When your boss calls you into their office to "talk about something", it never ends well even when your boss is as sweet as Mia.

"Lorelai, I've seen what a wonderful job you're able to do here as a maid. You're contentious and attentive and despite your lateness to meetings, your work is always done on time. I really love having you work as a maid here, but I think now that you've had your business degree for a few months it might be time to give you some more responsibility. As you know, JoAnna is getting married next month and her husband-to-be just got a job in New Mexico so they're going to be moving there. This leaves the event planning position open. I think you have the qualifications to do that job and I would like to offer it to you first. Would you be willing to take the job?" I couldn't even believe what I was hearing. Mia wanted to give me a promotion to event planner. That was a job I would be good at and a job I would love. "Mia, of COURSE. I'd love the job. What should I do to prepare? Will I start as soon as JoAnna leaves?" Mia chuckled at me before answering. "I'd like you to start training with JoAnna as soon as possible, maybe the day after tomorrow. She'll go over the events that are already booked that you will have to handle once she's gone. She'll get you acquainted with all the services and layouts we usually use and she'll probably have you get in touch with the clients you'll be working with after she leaves." I can feel happiness bubbling up inside me and I feel like I just want to squeal and jump around in circles, but I try to keep on my professional face at least until I'm out of Mia's office. "I'm very proud of the work you do honey, and how much you've grown up since you started working here." Mia got up from her desk and walked around it to give me a hug. I hugged her back tightly. "Why don't you take the rest of the day off? Call Sookie and tell her the good news, go shopping or something. You've earned a day to celebrate." I couldn't stop beaming if I tried. "Thank you Mia, you have no idea how much this means to me!"

I run from Mia's office out back to the potting shed. When I get inside I close the doors and the blinds and I scream and squeal and jump around for a few moments. This is one of the biggest accomplishments of my life so far. After a few moments I stop screaming like a fan girl at a Bon Jovi concert and sit down on my bed. I look around at the fairly empty potting shed and realize I have no one to share my accomplishment with. I decide to call Sookie. She's away at Culinary School, but she'll be back in about a month or so after she graduates. I dial Sookie's phone and her roommate answers and says Sookie is in class. I leave a message for her to call me later. I feel like a balloon that's come untied and is slowly deflating. I reach under the bed and pull out a medium sized cardboard box and heave it up onto the bed with me. Inside are two baby books, a little pair of booties, a onesie, a receiving blanked, a small stuffed dog, and the last sonogram picture of my healthy baby girl. I can feel the hot tears already falling down my face as I pick up the sonogram picture and the blanket. "Hey baby girl, guess what? Mommy just got a promotion. We're in the big leagues now!" I feel silly for talking to a sonogram photo of a daughter that I never got to have, but it makes me feel calmer somehow and comforted that that I can still be connected with her in some way. I run my hand over the blanket and try not to think about the doctor handing it back to me and telling me she was sorry for my loss. I dry my eyes with the corner of the blanket and put everything back in the box before shoving it under my bed.

I can't sit here moping around. This is supposed to be a day of celebration. I run over to my closet and change into something nice, a little purple dress with silver shimmer threads woven through. I pick out a pair of black flats and a lighter purple jacket to go with the ensemble. I pull my hair down from its messy ponytail and fix my make-up. I'm all dressed up with no place to go. I sit back down on the bed and think about all the places I could go to celebrate. I could go to the mall, but window-shopping isn't as much fun as it looks in the movies. I could go to a fancy restaurant, but eating alone in a fancy restaurant makes you look pathetic. I could go to a bar, but they won't let me in for another month (legally anyway). I'm feeling more bummed out by the minute, and then I remember reading in the paper that the Bangles were playing at a theater in New York tonight. I rooted around the messy coffee table and found the paper. I copied down the address of the theater and headed for my car. What better way to celebrate a promotion than going to see your favorite band?

My celebration plans were all in vain anyway; when I got to the box office the snotty clerk told me they were sold out. I thought about staying in New York and doing some shopping but I really couldn't afford to do that plus the ride back to Stars Hollow isn't exactly a quick trip. By the time I made it back to town it was almost 8 o'clock, traffic on the freeway was unbelievable and I was really hungry. I remembered being in the diner this morning and wishing I had time to try their pancakes. Instead of driving back to the Inn I went to the diner and parked my Jeep behind a big green truck. The dinner rush was clearly over and there were only a few patrons left in the diner and flannel man (or Lucas as Mia called him) was wiping down the counter. I strode in and plopped myself on the same stool from earlier. Luke looked up at me and grimaced. "So much for that horoscope bringing me luck. I thought it said the annoying woman would go away once I gave her coffee." I gave him a cheeky grin. "It said she would go away, it never said anything about her not coming back." Luke arched an eyebrow and shoved the cleaning rag into the back pocket of his jeans. "So are you going to order something or did you just come back to torment me?" I plucked a menu from the stand on the counter. Everything sounded pretty good except for some of the salads. "I'll just take a burger and fries, oh and coffee of course." He looked at me like I was crazy again. "It's like 8:30 at night, should you really be drinking coffee this late, you'll be up all night." I waggled my eyebrows at him and suppressed the urge to add 'dirty' to the end of this sentence. "Who says I don't wanna be up all night?" He choked out a laugh and then said, "Well that at least explains your wardrobe." I looked down at my dress self-consciously. "Is there something wrong with my dress? I didn't think it was that slutty?" Luke's eyes bugged out of his head. "No, no that's not what I meant. I just meant you looked like you were dressed for a date or something, you know dressed nice."

I tried to ignore the amusement I got from seeing him panic over potentially insulting me. "For your information Duke I'm dressed up because it's a special day. I just got a promotion." His face screwed up and he looked at me funny again. "My name is Luke, not Duke. Uh, congratulations on your promotion I guess." He scratches the back of his head right under the brim of his ball cap and he looks uncomfortable. "I'm Lorelai Gilmore by the way, I work at the Independence Inn, and for the record if you keep making coffee this amazing you're going to be seeing a lot more of me Duke. " Luke scowled again, probably because I'm purposely getting his name wrong. "I'm LUKE Danes and I run this diner. Your order will be up soon." Luke retreats to the back, presumably to make my food and I can't wipe the smile from my face. This may not be a Bangles concert but no evening can be bad when you're drinking coffee and having some (possibly flirtatious) banter with a very cute guy.

**A/N: I wasn't quite sure where to stop this. This is going to be a multi-chapter fic but I didn't really know where to cut off the chapter. I think right here is good because if I stop here I know exactly where I want to pick up the next chapter. Please leave reviews; I'm curious about how well I'm writing the characters since this is a new fandom for me. Also I know the no Rory thing is weird but I'm loving writing it! Thanks for taking the time to read!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Well, here's chapter two. The story has a lot of views but no reviews so I'm not sure if it sucks and y'all are too nice to tell me or just nobody wants to review. I'm enjoying writing it so I guess that's what really matters, but really feedback good or bad would be greatly appreciated! As you know, I own nothing.**

Going to the diner before work every morning became my new ritual over the next few months. I'd go in and get my cup of coffee and sometimes even get breakfast when I had the time. Over those few months I told myself I kept going back for the unbelievably good coffee, but I think I really went back to see Luke. Every day there was a new sort of banter. One day he would tell me that I was a caffeine junkie and that I'd have a heart attack by the time I reach thirty, the next day he's telling me red meat can kill me, and the next day he rants about my incessant talking and pop culture references. Even though all of his ranting digs were about me, it was nice to have someone who can think as quickly as I can and can spitfire right back at me. That probably has a lot to do with why I went back for lunch and dinner as well.

Over time Luke started to come out of his grumpy shell. Even though I hate to brag, I think that was a little bit of my doing. One unbelievably hot morning in June, the window in the potting shed wouldn't open and it was like an oven in there. The maintenance man was too busy to get it open for me that day, so as I was waiting for my dinner and coffee at the counter, I was thumbing through the yellow pages looking for a handyman to come unstick the window. When Luke asked why I was looking for a handyman I told him and he offered to come fix my window. After I ate, he left the diner in the capable hands of his new employee Cesar and grabbed his toolbox and followed me back to the Inn. He got the window unstick and he wouldn't even let me pay him for it. From then on, whenever I needed little things done, whether my door lock was broken, the breaks in my Jeep were making a funny noise, or when I needed someone to set up the new stereo speakers, Luke always offered to help.

I had known him about six months when I realized he was becoming (or had already become) my best friend. I told him things about my day when I would go get food, no matter how stupid these things were. He even opened up more too. He would tell me about how much he hated Taylor, and how he wished that "stupid Kirk kid" would stop coming into the diner and asking for a job. We had a nice rhythm going. We even shared a few moments (or what I thought were moments), like when I helped him paint the diner and we found one of his father's old orders scrawled along one of the walls. I thought he was going to kiss me that night but he didn't and I got so flustered I left and went home. I finally pieced together a few weeks later the real reason he never made a move.

I was working out in the town square at one of Taylor's latest projects to raise money for the bridge. We were supposed to get people to pledge money, and for every flower we planted that much money would get donated to the bridge fund (one of Taylor's dumber ideas). He left Kirk in charge of watering the planted flowers and instead of watering the flowers, the sprayer got out of control and Kirk watered me. I stalked to the diner in a huff to ask Luke if he had any towels. He told me there were towels upstairs and T-shirts in his top dresser drawer if I wanted something dry to put on. I went up and dried off and then started sorting through his T-shirts to find one I liked. At the bottom of the drawer there was a woman's tank top and hoodie. I decided to wear those instead of one of his shirts. I walked back down into the diner and thanked him for the change of clothes and he completely flipped out on me. He told me I had no right to wear what I had on and that I needed to go change into something else immediately. He was fuming mad and I had no choice but to go back up and change. I picked out one of his T-shirts and folded the other things back up and put them back in the drawer. Luke came up a few minutes later and apologized for his outburst. That was when we had our first real heart to heart talk. He told me about his long-time girlfriend Rachel. He told me they dated all through high school and she was his first love, but she had always loved the thought of getting out of Stars Hollow and traveling the world. Luke was sure she was all talk and not truly serious. She worked as a photographer for the Stars Hollow Gazette and they lived together in a small apartment. He was even considering buying a ring. Everything was going well until he came back from working in his father's store one day to empty drawers and a note on the table that said she had to get out and see the world. That tank top and hoodie were left behind in the closet. Luke even alluded to the fact that she left right around the time his father passed away and the whole time was the darkest spot in his whole life so far.

After this conversation, the entire dynamic of our friendship changed. We were no longer casual friends. He didn't just pour my coffee and fix my broken windows and I didn't just gripe to him about my stupid co-worker Michel and rely on him to pour my coffee. We were sharing important and painful details of our lives. We were the kind of friends that could "talk" about things. Nothing changed in our day-to-day routine but there was a sort of unspoken bond after that conversation that would be there for the rest of our lives.

The first day in seven months I missed going to Luke's was the anniversary of my daughter's birth and death. I commemorate it every year by driving up to Hartford to the family burial plots and visiting her. Then I stay home and eat ice cream and watch movies. I don't go to work, I don't associate with other people, I don't do anything. I woke up that morning from a vivid reoccurring dream. I'm holding my healthy baby daughter in my arms and suddenly her breathing stops and her face goes blue and the doctors are yanking her away from me. I always wake up crying from this dream. I was sitting in my bed and letting the cathartic tears flow when I heard a knock on my door. I knew it was probably Sookie bringing me breakfast because she knows I don't take care of myself properly on this day. I shuffle to the door and open it, never expecting to see Luke on the other side.

He's standing there with a to-go cup of coffee and a small bag that looks just big enough for a Danish. "Lorelai, what's wrong? Are you sick or hurt? You didn't come by the diner today and that's the first day in seven or eight months that you haven't come in. We didn't have a fight or anything so I wanted to check on you. I brought you coffee and a cherry Danish." For some reason, Luke's generosity and kindness make me weep more. I hear him put the cup and bag on the counter and then I feel him gently leading me back to the bed. We sit down and he lets me sob into his shoulder and he whispers to me that everything is going to be all right. When I'm finally able to calm myself down enough I tell him, "No, it's never going to be all right." I become hyper-aware of the fact his arm is around me and I'm leaning heavily on him, so I sit straight up rather quickly. "Do you wanna tell me what's got you so upset?" I take a deep breath. The only people I have told about my daughter aside from my parents and Christopher and his family was Sookie and Mia. Sharing this with Luke would mean that I trust him enough to let him inside of me where things are broken.

I nodded my head yes to him and then reached under the bed and pulled out the box. "Well Luke, you know I'm only twenty one. I'm really young to be out on my own and working at an Inn. I ran away from home at sixteen. Home was not the home I would have chosen for myself. My parents are rich, really rich. They come from a society where a young girl is supposed to wear ridiculous party dresses and be in cotillions and join stupid societies, and know the correct use for a million different types of forks. I always felt suffocated there." Luke watched me as I started to tell my story. I could see how he was trying to put the pieces together and figure out how smothering rich society could lead to my uncontrollable sobbing. "You see I always felt suffocated but that wasn't exactly the reason I left." I opened the box and pushed it towards Luke, and motioned for him to look through the box. He pulled each item out and laid them on the bed and I tried to keep my composure. "These are all baby items." Luke stated. "Yes, they are. I got pregnant very close to my fifteenth birthday. I was dating a boy named Christopher Hayden that I had known all my life. We liked to get into trouble together. We'd sneak out of my house and steal liquor from my parents' cabinet and even have sex out on the balcony of my bedroom. I was fourteen, almost fifteen years old and I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't even actually admit to myself that I was pregnant until I was fifteen and five months along, far enough along that I couldn't wear a bikini to the beach that summer because I was showing. Telling my parents I was pregnant was the hardest thing I ever had to do. They were shocked and horrified. Chris' parents wanted me to have an abortion. Their solution was that we get married when I turned sixteen and we would both finish high school, after high school Chris would go work at my father's company and I would be a stay at home mother and join the DAR and be exactly like my mother. I didn't want any of that."

I could see Luke's wheels still spinning. I knew he was trying to figure out what happened to the baby and how I ended up in Stars Hollow. "In the end, we didn't have to worry about any of that. I was eight months pregnant when I got really sick. It started off feeling like flu symptoms but it got worse. I had to go to the hospital. The doctors determined that it was something called Fifth Disease, which wasn't harmful to me, just caused my joints to swell and made me feel like I had the worst flu of my life. This Fifths Disease though is something called a parvovirus which can attack a fetus and cause a miscarriage. They ran a full workup on the baby and found out that she was already dead inside of me because of the virus." I looked up at Luke, which was a terrible mistake. The look of anguish on his face was enough to send me into another crying fit. He held me again until I was composed enough to continue the story.

"Because I was eight months pregnant, they couldn't remove the baby surgically like they do in most miscarriages that happen early on in pregnancy, so I had to deliver my baby, knowing she was already dead. They had to wait until I was over the Fifths disease and then they induced labor and I gave birth to my daughter, and today is the anniversary of that day. Labor is hard, it's painful and it's one of the hardest things a woman has to endure in her life. I will never be able to find the words to describe how hard it is to give birth to a baby knowing it's already dead and you will never get to share your life with it. There are just no words for that." I had to stop and breathe a few times before telling Luke the next part. "They cleaned her up and they let me hold her for awhile. I talked to her like she was alive. I told her she was beautiful and I told her that I loved her. Eventually the doctor came and took her away from me and told me she was sorry for my loss. We didn't have any sort of service for her, but she's buried at my family's burial plots in Hartford. "

Luke just sat there next to me. I was afraid that I had dumped too much on him, that he would finally see how crazy and broken I really am and bolt the other direction. It's true that we weren't in a relationship, but I didn't want to lose my friend Luke over this. He didn't say anything for a long time but finally asked me. "Did Christopher get to hold her when you were in the hospital? What did his parents say to you after all of this?" I laughed a bitter laugh. "Chris didn't even come to the hospital. He never saw his daughter. My parents called him when they were inducing me but he said it was better that he not come if the baby was already dead. His parents were relieved, their son was no longer tied to a "mistake" and he could go to Princeton and become a hotshot businessman like they always wanted. He came and visited me once a few months after this all happened. He told me he was sorry but it was just 'too hard'. I kicked him out of my house and haven't seen him since. "

Luke looked like fire was going to shoot from his eyes. "What a jackass that guy is. He didn't come because it was 'too hard'? Did he even think about you at all?" I shook my head no. "He's selfish. His parents were no better. My parent's at least tried to understand what I was going through. Whenever I would pass my father in the house for a few weeks afterwards he would stop and hug me, which is a strange and rare thing for him. My mother didn't really change much except for when I started having the nightmares. She slept in my room for two whole weeks after the incident while I was having nightmares that would relive the whole thing. I would wake up screaming and crying. She would never speak to me about them but she slept in a chair in my room and she would hold me until I stopped screaming. That was probably the kindest thing my mother ever did for me. After I stopped exhibiting outward signs of hysteria though that kindness stopped from both parents and they went on with life as usual and expected me to do the same. They talked about my coming out party and my graduation and which colleges I might want to attend."

Luke stared at me in disbelief that they would actually try to carry on with life as normal after something like that. He didn't say anything though so I did what I do best and continued talking. "After Chris' visit and my mother's pushing that evening at dinner to start writing my college entrance essays, I knew I had to leave. I couldn't stay in a world where everyone was pretending that this horrible thing never happened. So I ran. My parents went to some charity event that night after dinner. While they were gone I packed a suitcase and hopped on a bus and rode it until it reached the end of the line and the end of the line was Stars Hollow. I got off the bus and went to the Independence in where I was only planning to stay the night, but Mia mentioned something about needing maids so I applied for the job. She introduced me to Sookie's family who let me stay with them for two whole years, I moved into the potting shed when Sookie went away to culinary school."

Luke's expression was completely unreadable. I couldn't tell if he was mad or sad or scared or upset. "You're upset because this is the anniversary of your baby's birth and death. This is what some may call, your dark day?" I nodded at him, a somber look still on my face. "What do you normally do on your dark day? I go fishing and snap at people on the anniversary of my dad's death." I look up at Luke and realize he has just shared a very raw part of himself with me. "I go to my daughter's grave and then I hole up here and eat ice cream and watch movies and cry a lot." It's not until this moment that I realize Luke is patting my hand and that he is staring at me. He isn't looking at me with pity, but he is giving me a very intense stare. I don't know what compels me to do it but I hear myself asking, "Would you want to come with me, to the cemetery I mean? I'm always a little concerned about driving up there on this day since my head isn't exactly in the right place." I see Luke gulp and his Adam's apple bobs up and down. "Of course I'll come with you. The truck is parked right out front. Are you ready to go now or do you want me to step out while you get ready?" I look down at my grungy jeans and t-shirt and realize it's not getting much better than this today anyway. "No, I'm ready, we can go." I grab the coffee cup on the way out to his truck because I'll need a caffeine fix to get through this. Luke opens the passenger side door for me before going over and getting in the driver's side. He pulls out of the Inn parking lot and tells me I can play anything I want on the radio. I turn the dial to a random rock station and stare out the window. I give Luke directions to the cemetery and when we get there I direct him towards the plot. We stopped at a flower shop on the way and I got some roses to put on the grave. Luke got a single daisy and told me he felt strange not coming with anything since it was her birthday and all.

I walked the familiar path to the grave and Luke followed behind me. He wasn't too close that it felt uncomfortable but he wasn't too far behind in case I needed him. Something about him knowing the exact distance to follow me at made my heart flutter. We arrived at the gravesite and I ran my fingers over the name on the stone: "Lorelai Leigh Gilmore". I placed the roses on top of the stone and sunk to my knees in the grass. I felt Luke brush past me and drop the daisy on the stone and then he put a hand on my shoulder. I turned around to address him. "I usually talk to her, is that okay? I don't want to weird you out." Luke just squeezed my shoulder. "This day is about you and your daughter, just act like I'm not here." He then took his hand from my shoulder and took a few steps back.

"Hey baby girl. Gosh you would have been seven today, you would be in the first grade. I honestly don't know where the time goes. I hope you know I think about you every day. I know I only come to visit once a year but I did bring your flowers, seven roses for a beautiful seven-year-old girl. This year you have another special flower, it's from Luke." I motion for Luke to come back over with me. "Luke don't get to weirded out by this because I talk to her like she's actually here with us." Luke just nods at me. "This is Luke baby girl. He makes really good coffee and the best food. I know you would have liked him. He brought you a flower because he said everybody deserves to get birthday presents." I start crying again and Luke kneels down in the grass and puts his arm around my shoulders. Something about having him here makes this all seem easier and I calm down quicker than I usually do. "I love you baby girl. Now I'm going to go home and celebrate with ice cream and movies like I always do. Just remember you're beautiful and mommy loves you." I run my fingers over the name again and kiss the stone. I stand up and face Luke. "I'm ready to go now. Thank you so much for bringing me." I reach out and hug Luke. He's stiff at first and I know it's because he's stunned by my hug but he eventually loosens up and hugs back. I'm just pulling back when I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I start to turn around to see why I'm getting the sudden creepy feeling but before I can see what's behind me I hear someone say "Lorelai?" I don't need to finish turning around to know that voice belongs to my mother, Emily Gilmore.

**A/N: Dun Dun Dun, Emily Alert! So this is a sad and sappy story. Sorry it's so… out there, I have to write what comes into my head. Reviews pretty please, they're my coffee!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I just can't help myself. I'm not usually a quick updater of multi-chapter stories, in fact most of the time I give up on them altogether. Thank you to Nancy, BFD, and an unidentified guest for your reviews of the story. It's nice to get a feel for how I'm handling the characters, especially because even with the absence of Rory I want Lorelai and Luke relatively the same as we see them on the show. Now kick back, relax, and prepare for the wrath of Emily Gilmore. As always, I own nothing.**

**P.S.: Nancy, aside from the mention of Rachel in Chapter 2 you shouldn't be reading anymore about her unless it's relevant to the storyline, but I promise you she's not coming back and swooping in like she did on the show!**

_Last time on The Innkeeper and the Diner Owner_

_I stand up and face Luke. "I'm ready to go now. Thank you so much for bringing me." I reach out and hug Luke. He's stiff at first and I know it's because he's stunned by my hug but he eventually loosens up and hugs back. I'm just pulling back when I feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I start to turn around to see why I'm getting the sudden creepy feeling but before I can see what's behind me I hear someone say "Lorelai?" I don't need to finish turning around to know that voice belongs to my mother, Emily Gilmore._

"Mom," I say as I turn around and face her. I'm much taller than she is but her sensible heels, pristine wardrobe, and perfectly coifed hair make me feel as though she's towering over me. "What are you doing here?" My mother just looks at me with her patented stare of disappointment and arrogance. "Am I not allowed to visit my granddaughter's grave? I did pay for this burial plot you know." I bite my tongue instead of telling her Dad actually paid for the burial plot because that's not the first thing you bring up after running away from home and not contacting your parents in six and a half years. "I'm surprised to find you here Lorelai. The hasty note you left us six and a half years ago said you wanted to leave your old life behind, which I assumed included your daughter." I felt the anger bubbling up inside me and I was just about to let a few venomous words slip from my mouth until I felt Luke's firm grip on my shoulder. "No mom, I didn't leave because I wanted to leave my daughter behind, I left because I couldn't go on with my life as it had been before her. I hated that life before I had the baby and I hated it worse after when everyone just pretended that life could go back to the way it was after her death." The pitch of my voice kept rising the longer I talked.

"So it's bad enough you run away, I don't see you for six years, and you berate the way I raised you but I also come to find that you've turned visiting your daughter's grave as some sort of dating activity. Are you showing him what can happen if you're not careful, is this your preferred method of birth control?" I feel like I have just been shot. That was low even for Emily Gilmore. I could see on her face that she regret saying it, even if it had been what she was thinking. "No mom, it's just Luke," I mumbled. I hear him speak up. "That's her way of saying we weren't on a date." I feel bad now; I didn't mean to make Luke feel unimportant, so I turned to him. "You know what I meant, we could be on a date but we're not." Luke just nods at me. He looks so uncomfortable and I know he wants to get out of here. "We have to get going mom, we both have jobs and things that need taken care of." Well Luke has a business to run, I have a date with Ben and Jerry this evening but she doesn't need to know that. "Oh no Lorelai Victoria Gilmore, you're not getting out of this so easily. You think you can run away under the cover of darkness and not speak to us for six years and then when we finally see you again you can just run out? Sorry, but that's not how this works. I don't want to have a fight with you in the middle of a cemetery because it's disrespectful, but there are plenty of things we need to talk about. You and your escort will follow me back to our house and we will talk there." I shake my head vigorously. "Uh uh, not happening. I'm never setting foot in that house again. I left for a reason. I'm not going to that house so you can send me to my room and lock me inside. It won't even work if you haven't sealed up the balcony windows because I'll just shimmy down the drain pipe like I did at fourteen." Emily was fuming now. "You WILL follow me back to the house and we WILL have this discussion." She turned to address Luke. "I assume you drove, you can follow me back to the house."

I was mad. No, I was livid. I barely recognized the fact that I was walking forward and being helped into the cab of the truck. It didn't sink in until Luke was starting the engine and following my mother down the small road. "What are you doing? You can't follow her to their house, the torture chamber of my childhood. Did you not hear my story earlier today." Luke had on his 'I've had enough of this crap' face. "Yeah Lorelai, I heard your story but I think it's awful you just left your parents. Even if you had to leave you could have kept in some sort of touch with them. I know what it's like to lose your parents. I don't want you regretting someday all the time you spent away from them. Even if you go over there today and you fight and you scream at least there was an attempt to mend the fences." I crossed my arms and pressed my forehead to the window. Luke thinks he knows what's best for me but he doesn't. That's fine, I only need him to get me back to Stars Hollow and then I can freeze him out. Until I need coffee, but even then I don't have to say anything to him other than 'I need coffee'.

It's not really in my nature to keep quiet though so after a few minutes of pouting and staring out the window I start to talk again. "Did you not hear her ask me if bringing a man to my daughter's grave was my preferred method of birth control? You actually expect me to sit in a room with her after she said something like that? Of all the cruel things Emily Gilmore has said and done in her life, that's probably one of the worst. You really expect me to go to her house and be civil with her after that?" Luke just grunts at first and then answers me. "No, I don't expect you to be civil. You're both probably going to scream at one another until you're blue in the face. Maybe you'll make up and maybe you won't but you should try. You think you don't want them in your life, but five years down the road if you find out something happened to one of them how are you going to feel? They're still your parents. Don't let the last interaction you have with them be a short note saying you're running away. You don't have to believe I'm right, but I am the only one in this car whose parents are dead." With that, Luke's jaw tightened and I knew that meant the conversation was over. I'm still furious about what my mother said and did today but I'll do this to appease Luke at least; there's clearly something about his parent's death that he's not telling me and it seems like this will make him feel better in some weird way.

We pull into the Gilmore driveway and Luke mutters a "holy crap" under his breath. "Holy crap indeed Luke." I say back. He cuts the engine and I open my door to get out of the truck. I'm halfway to the front door before I realize he isn't following me. I walk back over to the driver's side of the truck. "Well, are you coming or what?" He looks at me like I'm crazy. "No I'm not coming. This is your thing to fight out with your mom; I'd just be in the way. I'll be right here when you coming storming out the front door in a little bit." I forced a laugh at him. "Oh no burger boy, you made me come here, you're coming in with me." I pulled the truck door open and started yanking on his arm to pull him out. My attempt was futile because he's stronger and more solid than I am but he must have gotten annoyed enough because he pushed my hands away and got out of the truck. "Get away from me you mental patient, I'll come in, geez."

My mother was standing at the front door when we came around the truck. "Honestly Lorelai, are you going to play around all day or are you going to get in here? Don't be baited, don't freak out on her first, she'll use it against you. I chanted this in my head on the walk to the front door. I told Luke he had to come in because he forced me to come, but as he was following me through the front door and we were handing out coats to the maid, I realized I wanted him to come in with me because I was scared to come back into this house by myself. It was an irrational fear really because the house itself had never done anything to me, but the people and the memories that inhabited it were what was scaring me and it was nice to have someone that would be on my side in there with me, even if he wasn't going to speak up.

Mom led us into the parlor where, surprisingly, my father was sitting in a chair reading a newspaper. When he heard us come in he stood up; his face was contorted into a stern half smile. "Lorelai, it's been almost six and a half years hasn't it?" I tried to force a chuckle and said "Yeah Dad, long time no see." He was not happy with my trying to make light of the situation. "And who is this?" Dad asked motioning to Luke. Mom spoke up before I had the chance. "That's Luke, Lorelai's 'not a date' male escort." I rolled my eyes at her. "He's a friend mom, not an escort. Plus this is about me not him and we know it so shouldn't we be focusing on what was so important that you forced us to come back here?" Dad reached over to shake hands with Luke while mom's face turned an interesting shade of purple. "Forced? I didn't force the two of you to do anything. I simply asked you to come back to the house to have a discussion that's been six years in the making Lorelai." Oy, when my mother screams, she really screams. Dad is silent and is taking some pity on Luke. I hear him say something about sit down and can I get you a drink. I don't really know what happens between the two of them after that because my mother and I are standing toe to toe and I'm screaming back at her. "Oh and in what way did I know this was going to be a 'discussion' and not a fight mom? Because judging by your snotty little remark about asking if I brought Luke to my daughter's grave as a method of birth control definitely pointed more towards an impending fight than a discussion."

Dad stood up from his chair again. "Emily, did you actually say that to her?" Mom got a guilty look on her face and in a much smaller voice said, "I was angry. " Dad slowly pushed mom down onto one of the couches and sat down next to her. I waved his hand as if telling me to sit down, so I plopped down next to Luke who had his hands folded in his lap and was staring at them like they were the most fascinating things in the world. "Lorelai, it was wrong of your mother to say something like that to you, but you have to understand she's been worried about you for six years, she said something she didn't mean." I scoffed at the both of them. "This is so typical. You have never even tried to understand me and you're always jumping to one another's defense even when the other is wrong. No one in this house cared that I was fifteen and pregnant, and then fifteen with a miscarriage. Not just a miscarriage, I had to give birth to my already dead baby. No one seemed to care how that would affect me as long as the "little mistake" was gone." Now, to be fair, my parents had never called my daughter a mistake (at least not to my face or any of the times I was listening while they talked behind my back). The "mistake" was always a term used by Christopher's parents, but to me, the distinction didn't matter much anymore. Mom turned that awesome shade of purple before starting to scream again. "And this is so typical of you Lorelai. You want to whine and complain about how no one understood what you were going through. You never stopped to think about how this would affect anyone but you. You didn't think about how getting pregnant at fifteen would change Christopher's life or our lives or Christopher's parents. You just wanted to be defiant and have sex with your boyfriend, you didn't think at all. You got pregnant and that was something we all had to deal with, but even when you lost the child you were still as selfish as ever. That was supposed to be our first grandchild. You didn't think about how that loss would affect your father and I, you only thought of how it was affecting you."

I was getting angrier by the second. I had to restrain myself from standing up again. "Oh yeah, how selfish of me for being upset that I got sick and hospitalized while pregnant, then found out my child was dead and still had to give birth to her and then got to come back to a life where everyone wanted to pretend she didn't even exist because now the family name wouldn't be tarnished. Yeah mom, I had it so easy and was acting like a selfish child, you're right." My tone was bitter and my words were full of venom. Mom's eyes turned to slits. "You did have some right to be upset Lorelai, you went through so much at such a young age, but you never even considered what it would do to anyone else. I lost my granddaughter as well. No, she wasn't going to be born under ideal circumstances but she was still my granddaughter. Not only that but I had to watch my daughter fall ill and be hospitalized and go through a tragedy. When you came home from the hospital you were so upset and all you wanted to do was distance yourself from us as much as possible. The only time you would even let me be around you is when you were having those nightmares. I could see how horribly this had affected you by those nightmares but during the day you put up such a wall. What did you expect us to do?"

I just sat there and took in everything she had said. Was I really that awful? I had spent most of my time in my room watching television, only showing my face for meals or snacks, or if I needed a change of scenery. I didn't talk much either. But was I really supposed to talk to them about this? It's not exactly like we we're a warm and snuggly family that shared everything with one another and it wasn't like my mother and I had a super close mother daughter bond even before I ran away. "So maybe I closed myself off a little, but how was I supposed to know you wanted to talk or anything? You never said anything to me." Mom rolled her eyes and threw her hands up in exasperation. "Every time I tried to talk to you from the time you turned ten you made it out like I was attacking you and turned everything into a fight, so I stayed away. Why fight against the current? I thought after losing your own daughter you would realize how much a daughter means to a mother and you would come to me, but I guess I was wrong."

I looked across the room at my mother. She's tough and she knows how to get what she wants. She's strong and she's always in control. I've never seen a crack in her armor until now. "I didn't know you wanted us to be closer mom. I was always such a disappointment to you and Dad." Mom's mouth formed a tight line and she shook her head. "Don't get all self-depreciating now Lorelai. I barely got out of bed for a month after you left and I cried 'round the clock. The maid had to bring my meals to me in bed and I left your father to do just about everything that I should have been handling. You know what it feels like to lose a daughter Lorelai. I lost my daughter as well only she left willingly and didn't even bother to stay in touch with me. You think you're the only one that knows what it feels like to lose a child but you're wrong." Mom was still composed on the outside but her voice was starting to quiver and betrayed her exterior. I had no idea my mother was upset when I left. I honestly didn't even think she would care. Your thought process at sixteen is much different than your thought process at twenty and thinking back on what I did, it was selfish and a somewhat ridiculous choice. I don't regret it of course, I like my job and my friends and the life I've made for myself, but I never thought about how it would affect anyone else.

"Mom, leaving was selfish. I just never really thought it would affect you guys the way it did. I was so hungry for independence and change. I just couldn't bear to live here anymore and go on with my life as if my pregnancy and my daughter never happened. Sure it was easy for Chris who never came to the hospital and just hopped skipped and jumped right over the real responsibility. I never had that option. After a few months you both started pushing me back towards school, back towards college and degrees and a coming out party. Those were trivial and childish things and I had grown past them, or at least I thought I had. I couldn't just pick up my old life where it had left off so seamlessly, and it hurt that you wanted me to."

I could see this was starting to become too much for mom. Apparently dad could see it too because he spoke up instead. "Lorelai, no one expected you to pick up seamlessly where your pre-pregnancy life left off, but we couldn't let you wallow in the past forever. Had the baby lived your life would have been difficult. You wouldn't have had the opportunity to finish high school, attend college, along with many other things. No one wanted you to forget what happened to you, but we also didn't want you to waste the opportunities still ahead of you. You were always a very bright girl. You loved to read and to learn almost as much as you liked getting into trouble. You wanted to travel the world and visit exotic places. We didn't want you to waste the opportunities you had to do all of those things while you were stuck mourning your past."

I guess I understood where dad was coming from. I was going to argue that they didn't know what I wanted but mom spoke up before I could. "We just wanted what was best for you Lorelai. That's all any parent wants is to give their child anything they can dream of and give them all the opportunities they can. We're more fortunate than most Lorelai, we've never wanted for anything and we have the resources to do anything our hearts desired. We just wanted to give you the tools to reach your full potential in life. Maybe though, we went about it the wrong way."

Emily Gilmore just admitted she might have done something wrong. This may be a first to put in the record books. I wanted to jump around and say, "ha I told you so" or something equally obnoxious, but I couldn't. I felt guilty. I'm older now; it's easier to see their intentions. No, they didn't go about it the right way at all but they're Emily and Richard Gilmore and they don't know how to share their feelings. I know I should say something but I'm feeling ashamed. "I'm sorry," is all I can get out. I suddenly become very aware of Luke sitting next to me and how heavy the air is, and how I really really don't like whatever this feeling is I'm feeling right now. "I'm really sorry. There's never going to be anything I can do to make up for that."

My mother got her patented Emily Gilmore smile on her face. "You can start coming to weekly Friday night dinners here. We haven't seen you in so long. It would be one way you could try to make it up for us." Leave it to Emily to already have some sort of "punishment" in mind for me. What could I do though? The guilt was already firmly planted in my gut. "I could do that, I guess." Mom's Cheshire cat grin got bigger. "Excellent, we'll start next Friday, your father and I have a function to attend this Friday." After my mother hatched her master plan the room went silent. I looked over at poor Luke and he looked so uncomfortable and out of place. "Well, Mom, Dad, we should probably get going, Luke has to get back to work I don't want to keep him any longer than necessary," We got up, Luke shook both of my parents' hands and then we were back to the truck and hitting the road Jack.

"Thanks for making me do that." I said to Luke while I was looking out the window. I didn't want to admit he was right about making me go (or at least not have to look at him while I admitted it). "It seemed to have went well. Your mother sure is intimidating though." I laughed. "That's definitely an accurate word to describe Emily Gilmore." Luke fumbled with the radio and turned on some soft rock station that filled the silence in the cab all the way back to Stars Hollow. I guess one thing that could be said for the day is that I wasn't as sad as I thought I would be, but that could have been because I had many other things on my mind. Luke pulled into the parking lot at the Inn and drove around the back to the potting shed. He put the truck in park and I found myself reluctant to get out. "So, uh, thanks for the ride and for dealing with my parents and everything. I guess I'll just go in and have my date with Ben and Jerry and Casablanca alone." I didn't want to be alone. Normally, I liked my solidarity on this day, but today I just wanted to stay near Luke. Something about being with him made everything seem more manageable. That was the first moment I realized that Luke wasn't just my friend anymore he was my best friend (I may even be closer to him than I am to Sookie). I just continued to sit in the truck and he didn't make any effort to kick me out. "If you don't really want to be alone, we can go back to the diner, I can make you something to eat. I'll even refill your coffee without any comments about how it'll kill you." I looked at Luke who had a really small smile playing on his face. "Yeah, going to the diner sounds good right now." Luke put the truck in reverse and headed back to the main road.

I spent the rest of the night in the diner on "my" stool. I ate my burger and drank my bottomless cup of coffee. I watched Luke cook, deliver food, take orders, and wipe the counter about three hundred times in an hour. It should have been boring and it wasn't normally what I do on this day but it made me happy nonetheless. Luke drove me home that night after the diner was closed, even though I told him I could walk back. He even walked me to the door and made me promise to lock it behind me. I told him I live in a potting shed and no one was going to come busting in here looking for valuables and he told me not to assume things. Right before I went inside I thought he was going to kiss me goodnight but he backed away at the last second, bolted to the truck and sped off with a quick double honk of the horn. I went inside and even locked the door behind me. I felt strange on the inside for wishing he would have kissed me instead of running away.

**A/N: Well, what did you think of Emily and Richard everyone? Slightly out of character but what other way would there have been to get Lorelai back in touch with them without Rory? She wouldn't have stayed or bothered with them had Emily not shown a crack in her armor (at least in my opinion). I always love reviews; they make me happy! Also, it looks like we're starting to get into flirting Luke and Lorelai territory. It's gonna be a fun ride!**


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